


A Little Broken Inside

by DoctorV



Series: Archive: Doc's Old-Ass Comics Fic (DC, JLU, etc.) [17]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), Booster Gold (Comics), DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Justice League, Justice League International (Comic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-16
Updated: 2005-11-16
Packaged: 2019-04-03 23:40:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14007375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorV/pseuds/DoctorV
Summary: Guy Gardner doesn't like many people. Teammates are mostly only tolerated, except for the ones that become like family...





	A Little Broken Inside

**Author's Note:**

> Archiving some old old OLD fanfic of mine. This was originally posted to LiveJournal 11/16/2005, with the author's note:  
> "I...don't know why I wrote this. I have trouble believing I wrote this. It just...happened somehow.  
> Um...I suppose it's a sort of AU of the end of OMAC Project, with Booster "going home" to...I dunno, somewhere in the present time, anyway, instead of the future."
> 
> Added to Ao3 (but backdated): 04/02/2018

Guy Gardner doesn't like many people. Teammates are mostly only tolerated, except for the ones that become like family.

 

Not TV-perfect family with pearly white smiles and "very special episode" problems solved in an hour or half. _Real_ family. Family that grates your nerves because they're always there, and can be relied on in a pinch because they're always there. Family that fluctuates between annoyingly mature and annoyingly childish, where you're either in on the joke or the butt of it. Family that fights and screams and kind of hates a little, then fights by your side and wraps your bleeding knuckles and loves despite themself or yourself.

 

Family that can be the best thing and worst thing to ever happen to you, all at the same time.

 

They're in Booster's apartment, catching up on old times when "the team" meant more than the people you worked with. Guy is looking out the window at the falling snow when he sees it. It's just Booster's reflection in the glass, standing behind him in civvies because he hasn't worn a costume since his old one got busted in the fight where they lost Dmitri and almost lost Beatriz. Guy can see Booster's eyes in the window. They look ridiculously big, blue, and vulnerable without his goggles.

 

And with the overlay of frost outside, they look too much like Tora's.

 

Guy closes his eyes and rests his forehead against the cold window, and it's too much like when she kissed him with icy lips.

 

"Guy?"

 

He turns to look at the man through half-lidded eyes. Booster is wearing a sweater that's a little too big for him and Guy suspects it's because Booster hasn't been taking care of himself or it used to belong to Beetle. Maybe both.

 

"How do you remember him?" Guy asks suddenly, and some people might be confused by the question but Booster knows him.

 

"Laughing," he says quietly, and Guy can see shattered yellow goggles defiling the memory in the way Booster's arms wrap around himself so tight his knuckles turn white.

 

When Booster's eyes ask the same question, Guy flicks a hand at the white flurries outside and remembers tinkling icicle laughter and delighted icy-blue eyes. Booster nods like something deeply meaningful and philosophical has occurred, then moves to stand next to him in front of the window.

 

Guy can't pinpoint any particular event that set it in motion, but if pressed he might suspect Booster's naked eyes reflected in icy glass. How that led to heated kisses and demanding hands he can't say.

 

But it's warm, and it's keeping it in the family, so to speak. They know each other, and they knew the others, and they don't mind that there are two extra people in bed with them. Guy doesn't mind that Booster never says his name in the heat of passion, because it's not Booster who Guy calls out for at climax.

 

It isn't until Booster one day asks him a favor, looking guilty and miserable and desperate, that Guy thinks maybe what they're doing isn't entirely healthy. They're using each other, he knows. They both know. It should be okay, but it has a slight aftertaste of wrong.

 

Still he puts on the blue gloves and the blue cowl with the stupid yellow bug-eyed goggles, and now he's almost positive Booster doesn't know about the secret electronic fingertip control for unlocking the cowl's chinstrap just because he saw it used so often.

 

The look on Booster's face as he stares at Guy without seeing him, then begs him, begs like a two dollar whore while he's flat on his back, fisting bedsheets and licking around the edges of the cowl like he can navigate the face under it by taste...it all makes Guy want to hurt him a little. Broken words whispered in his ears tell him he can't hurt the man any more than Beetle already has, but he's just that little bit rougher anyway. Biting at bared throat, digging blunt fingernails into narrow hips to give himself better traction as he thrusts and thrusts and thrusts and Booster is shaking and taking it and begging for _more, Ted, please_.

 

After, Booster wraps himself around Guy and falls asleep with tear tracks on his cheeks and contentment on his lips. Guy stares up at the ceiling through silly yellow bug-eyed goggles that apparently aren't as yellow on the inside looking out as the other way 'round. He has an arm around Booster because otherwise the man would be laying on it and he'd wake up with pins and needles in the morning.

 

They're both using each other and Guy wonders how Booster would feel about a white wig and ice cubes.

 

Maybe it's not healthy, but for now it's working and he'll go with it until it doesn't.

 

They're both a little broken inside, but there are enough pieces between them that together they're almost whole.

 

Guy closes his eyes and dreams of snow and tinkling icicle laughter.


End file.
